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From the Director's DeskJames Amano,
Director, SEMI International Standards

The Need for LED Standards

Today, artificial lighting consumes about 20 percent of the world's
electricity. This will change as solid-state lighting, enabled by
high-brightness light emitting diodes (HB-LEDs), replaces conventional light
sources, with impressive economic and environmental savings. Reaching the
full potential of HB-LEDs, however, will require the global LED manufacturing
supply chain to collaborate on industry standards and technical roadmaps to
increase efficiency, reduce costs and spur innovation.

HB LEDs are critical, semiconductor-based technologies for energy efficiency,
safety and next generation displays. Improvements in cost per lumen and
lighting quality of HB-LEDs are similar to those of Moore's Law, following Haitz's Law (every
decade $/Lumen = 10X Lower, Lumen/Package = 20X Higher), promising huge
opportunities in solid-state lighting, display backlighting and other
high-brightness applications. For example, HB-LEDs have the potential to
lower lighting expenses by $100 billion between now and 2020 by reducing the
amount of electricity used for lighting by 50 percent.

Previous LED market expansions have been driven by automotive and consumer
electronic indicators, but the current expansion is based on the push for
green technology [LED backlight is also a strong driver]. LEDs are the most
efficient lighting source ever, yet are free of the toxic material disposal
issues associated with fluorescent lighting. While huge gains have been made
in brightness and cost of lumen per watt, the pace of these efficiency
improvements is predicted to slow down, so additional cost reductions will
require productivity and yield improvements, and standards will play a big
role.

Given the potential of the HB-LED market, a SEMI LED Manufacturing Steering
Committee was formed earlier this year to investigate opportunities in
standards and other areas. Over 30 industry stakeholders from companies such
as Veeco, Kulicke & Soffa, Semilab, Brewer Science, and Phillips Lumiled
participate, discussing issues such as:

Technology Roadmap-
Globalizing and elaborating on the DOE Roadmap

Development of a Cost of
Ownership/Manufacturing Model for time monitoring and supplier targeting